[5] In the 1930s, Porras had widespread support among the workers of Panama City and the party seemed to have potential for becoming one of the republic's major political forces.
In 1940 groups under both Socialist and Communist influence established the “Organización Sindical”, which 5 years later, on 14 August 1945, sponsored a congress that established the country's first central labor group, the Trade Union Federation of Workers of Panama (Federación Sindical de Trabajadores de Panamá, FSTP).
[11] With the overthrow of Arias in 1941, the party was given a seat in the cabinet of President Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango.
And when the Assembly assumed legislative power, de la Rosa and Brewer were instrumental in obtaining passage of a Labor Code and of laws regarding education and university autonomy.
[15] In 1948 Demetrio Porras unsuccessfully ran in the presidential elections, obtaining only 3,075 votes (01.55%) and losing their 2 seats in the National Assembly.
[17] The PS did not regain its legal status during the 1950s, but was “the nurturing ground for idealistic youth rebelling against the Spanish-blood oligarchy, known derisively as the “rabiblancos”, or "white tails," who controlled most of Panama's economic and political power.
Although in the election of that year it ran its own candidate, the peasant leader Florencio Harris, a group of members headed by the party president, Ismael Sánchez, broke away to support the candidacy of the National Opposition Union's Marco Aurelio Robles, who won.